My name is Magnus Reuterdahl; a presentation

My name is Magnus Reuterdahl and I live and work foremost in Sweden, though I do venture elsewhere on occasion. At this blog I write about my work, about archaeology, osteology and cultural heritage and sometimes on other things that happens to catch my eye. The views expressed on this blog are mine and not those of my employers. I currently work for Arkeologicentrum AB in Östersund – a company that work more or less all over Sweden.

As some of you may have noticed I have borrowed the name of this blog from Geoffrey Bibby´s book from 1956; The Testimony of the Spade – Life in Northern Europe from 15,000 B.C. to the Time of the Vikings. Why? – Because it’s a great title. I am aware of that there were some controversy regarding the title when it was published in the US due to the phrase spade, which was, and I guess still might be, used as a derogatory phrase for African-Americans. In this case that is not the case; spade is used as meaning the tool spade which we use as archaeologist and in no other way.

In the Swedish edition of the book there is a quotation: To Vibeke.“How does it feel to be prehistoric?” And I think that question in part is what got me interested in archaeology.

I read the book in late 80’s among many others which lead to a decision to study to become an archaeologist. In 2000 I began my academic journey at Stockholm University, studying Archaeology, Osteoarchaeology (both human Osteology and Zoo archaeology), Scandinavian Languages with a Historical Profile (Runes, medieval texts etc) and Cultural heritage and environment etc. In 2004 I got my master of arts in Archaeology and Osteoarchaeology.

During my studies I got my first employments as an archaeologist and as an osteologist via research projects at the University and me and a friend started a research project of our own; the Yangshao project, within which we have gone to China on two occasions and written some articles and reports. I was lucky, it’s not easy to find jobs as an archaeologist, but I got an employment soon after my graduation at the County administrative board of Kronoberg County. Where I worked between 2005 and 2007. Since then I worked at the County Museum of Östergötland (2008) and Norrbotten(2007, 2008), at the County administrative board of Norrbotten (2008-2009) and currently at Arkeologicentrum AB (2009-) and a few more.

Welcome

Hello and welcome to Testimony of the spade.

My name is Magnus Reuterdahl and I am a Swedish archaeologist and osteologist. Most posts are connected to my work or my interests in general; Scandinavian archaeology, osteology, cultural heritage, literature and so forth.

On the blog Aqua Vitae (in Swedish) and Testimony of a wine (in English) junkie I blog on wine.